We woke up this morning to clouds… not impressed! Today was cooler reaching only around 20°C.
We decided to treat ourselves this morning and go to Sunday breakfast at the resort. This resort is unique among all the ones we have stayed at, it has its own chef. Every morning there are free waffles and orange juice; so far we have refrained.In the evening there is
either a catered meal, or a pot luck and on Sunday morning a breakfast buffet. The meals cost between $6 and $8 each. Breakfast was good with great omelettes, potatoes, sausages, ham, grits and biscuits as well as warm cinnamon rolls, O.J. and coffee.
We got back from breakfast just in time to say good bye to our neighbours who were moving out to Yuma.
After breakfast it was time to tackle the toilet repair. It actually went much better than I dared to hope. The toilet did not need to be removed from its mounting, and the whole valve replacement took less than 30 minutes with no “yucky” stuff.
Given the large breakfast we skipped lunch and headed over the road to the fair grounds where there was a President day fun-fair and a rodeo. Last time we tried for a rodeo was in Texas where we almost drowned in a prolonged downpour, and didn’t see anything of the rodeo. Today, as we walked there it started to rain, not too heavy but the clouds were gathering in the lee of the mountains. We decided to go for it anyway, and as soon as we took our seats the rain got heavier. We stuck it out, and the rain came and went throughout the afternoon, at least it was a warm(ish) rain.
The rodeo featured a number of skills:
Wild horse or bronco riding where the rider had to stay on the horse for eight seconds. To qualify one hand had to remain off the horse and saddle for the entire time.
Stray cattle roundup, where two yearlings had to be caught and tied up by the feet.
Wild cow milking, here a cow had to be caught, brought to the ground, tied up and some milk taken. Fastest time wins.
Rounding up stray cattle into a trailer. A crew of four with two horses simulated arriving in an area where there were two stray cows that had to be rounded up and put in a trailer. It started with two horses in the trailer and the cowbows at the truck. At the signal they had to unload the horses from the trailer, round up the cattle, get them into the trailer, get the horses back into the trailer and lock the doors, again fastest wins.
Finally, branding. Here about 20 cattle were brought into the area, and herded behind a line about one third of the way down the arena. A team of 4 cowboys had to isolate a yearling from the herd move it down the area, catch it, lay it down and tie it then mock brand it. The rest of the herd had to remain behind the line, again fastest wins.
Despite the wet weather, a good time was had at our first rodeo.
We walked back to the resort where we changed out of wet clothing and had a hot drink before heading off to a friends site for afternoon drinks and conversation. What a difficult life!